Yi-Ching Hwang: Business for Social Impact in India

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In the video above, Yi-Ching Hwang (MBA '11) shares the highlights of her experience as a frontier market scout working with a social enterprise in India.

May 23, 2011 - 12:00am

After college, I served in the Peace Corps in Bolivia as an agriculture extension volunteer, connecting farmers with agronomists in the city. I stayed in South America for two years after Peace Corps and worked first for a not-for-profit development organization in Ecuador and then for a policy and advocacy organization in Bolivia.

During this time, I came across various micro-enterprises, businesses, and for-profit development social enterprises. These organizations were working to alleviate poverty and preserve our environment - all while being financially sustainable!

At the development project level, you can undertake all the projects in the world, but if the policy stays the same, change may not happen. When you work in the policy and advocacy field, you must have faith and patience: You might not see the results of your work until three years later. Business provides more tools for immediate action.

As one of the first eight frontier market scouts, I'm spending my final semester as an MBA student in Chennai, India, interning with a social enterprise and working on scaling their business to create the most development impact. Post-graduation I hope to continue working in the field of development at the intersection of business, poverty, and the environment.

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